01-28-2007, 01:33 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>This time, it's not short circuit: Pak </b>
Pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta | New Delhi
The last time the Marriott was bombed by Islamists in Islamabad on October 8, 2004, Pakistani Intelligence had waved away the deafening explosion that left two Italians and an American injured as nothing more than a "power short-circuit".
The Americans were not convinced and conducted an inquiry, which is believed to have established that a high-power explosive device had been planted in the hotel's lobby. But to humour General Pervez Musharraf, they let fiction prevail.
Friday's attempt by an Islamist to bomb the Marriott in Islamabad hours before the Republic Day reception hosted by India's High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal would probably also have been played down as another "short-circuit".
Unfortunately for the Pakistani Intelligence, camerapersons captured remains of the suicide bomber plastered on a hotel wall before the cops sealed the area and beat up mediapersons trying to enter the premises.
But while the Pakistani Government has grudgingly admitted that it was, indeed, a terror attack, it refuses to speculate why the hotel was targeted. Senior officials have been quick to deny any link between the suicide bombing and the Indian Republic Day reception, pointing out that the blast preceded the event by several hours - some three hours, to be precise.
However, a report in The Nation quotes an unnamed official as saying that "the bomber appeared ill-trained and poorly briefed, with poor Intelligence about the hotel".
Which could explain why he fumbled when confronted by a security guard. This could also be the reason why he was there much before the reception was scheduled to begin.
Islamists bombed the Marriott in Jakarta on August 8, 2003, killing 10 and injuring 150. The Indonesian Government had said the bombers were trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan, a charge angrily denied by Islamabad.
Three years later, a suicide bomber attacked the Marriott in Karachi on March 2, 2006, on the eve of US President George Bush's visit.
He was more successful in his deadly mission than Friday's bomber who apparently lost his way. Four people, including a US diplomat, were killed and 52 seriously injured in the Karachi attack.
Since nothing much remains of Friday's bomber to establish his identity - sleuths are trying to put together a half-blown head, an arm and a leg - Gen Musharraf and his Government can always claim that he was not a Pakistani. Investigators, working on what they explain as thin leads, are trying to push the theory that the bomber had "links with pro-Taliban extremists fighting Pakistani forces near the Afghan border".
A senior Intelligence official has been quoted as saying, "The involvement of pro-Taliban militants cannot be ruled out as they had recently threatened to carry out such attacks."
Whatever the real identity of the bomber, Friday's terror attack, the first in the Pakistani capital since 2005 and bang next door to the high security enclave of Government offices, which fortuitously missed the evening's reception thus preventing a bloody mayhem, is bound to have left red faces in Islamabad.
There is mounting concern in Army House and Islamabad's corridors of power over a Bill making its way up the Hill in Washington that seeks to bar American military aid for Pakistan unless it demonstrates its commitment to fighting Al Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorists, which must be certified by the US President. Implementation of 9/11 Commission Recommend-actions Act, 2007, has been passed by the House of Representatives and awaits Senate clearance. If passed into law, it will put a question mark over American aid for Pakistan worth $3 billion. Strangely, the Bush Administration continues to turn a blind eye to the grim reality of terrorists and terrorism continuing to flourish in Pakistan.
Even as the suicide bomber tried, in his ham-handed manner, to blow up the Marriott on Friday, elsewhere in Islamabad a top US official waxed eloquent on how the Bush Administration would press Congress to drop the provision linking aid to Pakistan with its commitment to fight terrorism.
"The new piece of legislation... is not the initiative of the Bush Government and efforts are under way to make sure that Pakistan-specific provisions in the 9/11 legislation are not made part of the law," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asian Affairs John A Gastright told newspersons on Friday
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Pioneer.com
Kanchan Gupta | New Delhi
The last time the Marriott was bombed by Islamists in Islamabad on October 8, 2004, Pakistani Intelligence had waved away the deafening explosion that left two Italians and an American injured as nothing more than a "power short-circuit".
The Americans were not convinced and conducted an inquiry, which is believed to have established that a high-power explosive device had been planted in the hotel's lobby. But to humour General Pervez Musharraf, they let fiction prevail.
Friday's attempt by an Islamist to bomb the Marriott in Islamabad hours before the Republic Day reception hosted by India's High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal would probably also have been played down as another "short-circuit".
Unfortunately for the Pakistani Intelligence, camerapersons captured remains of the suicide bomber plastered on a hotel wall before the cops sealed the area and beat up mediapersons trying to enter the premises.
But while the Pakistani Government has grudgingly admitted that it was, indeed, a terror attack, it refuses to speculate why the hotel was targeted. Senior officials have been quick to deny any link between the suicide bombing and the Indian Republic Day reception, pointing out that the blast preceded the event by several hours - some three hours, to be precise.
However, a report in The Nation quotes an unnamed official as saying that "the bomber appeared ill-trained and poorly briefed, with poor Intelligence about the hotel".
Which could explain why he fumbled when confronted by a security guard. This could also be the reason why he was there much before the reception was scheduled to begin.
Islamists bombed the Marriott in Jakarta on August 8, 2003, killing 10 and injuring 150. The Indonesian Government had said the bombers were trained by Al Qaeda in Pakistan, a charge angrily denied by Islamabad.
Three years later, a suicide bomber attacked the Marriott in Karachi on March 2, 2006, on the eve of US President George Bush's visit.
He was more successful in his deadly mission than Friday's bomber who apparently lost his way. Four people, including a US diplomat, were killed and 52 seriously injured in the Karachi attack.
Since nothing much remains of Friday's bomber to establish his identity - sleuths are trying to put together a half-blown head, an arm and a leg - Gen Musharraf and his Government can always claim that he was not a Pakistani. Investigators, working on what they explain as thin leads, are trying to push the theory that the bomber had "links with pro-Taliban extremists fighting Pakistani forces near the Afghan border".
A senior Intelligence official has been quoted as saying, "The involvement of pro-Taliban militants cannot be ruled out as they had recently threatened to carry out such attacks."
Whatever the real identity of the bomber, Friday's terror attack, the first in the Pakistani capital since 2005 and bang next door to the high security enclave of Government offices, which fortuitously missed the evening's reception thus preventing a bloody mayhem, is bound to have left red faces in Islamabad.
There is mounting concern in Army House and Islamabad's corridors of power over a Bill making its way up the Hill in Washington that seeks to bar American military aid for Pakistan unless it demonstrates its commitment to fighting Al Qaeda, Taliban and other terrorists, which must be certified by the US President. Implementation of 9/11 Commission Recommend-actions Act, 2007, has been passed by the House of Representatives and awaits Senate clearance. If passed into law, it will put a question mark over American aid for Pakistan worth $3 billion. Strangely, the Bush Administration continues to turn a blind eye to the grim reality of terrorists and terrorism continuing to flourish in Pakistan.
Even as the suicide bomber tried, in his ham-handed manner, to blow up the Marriott on Friday, elsewhere in Islamabad a top US official waxed eloquent on how the Bush Administration would press Congress to drop the provision linking aid to Pakistan with its commitment to fight terrorism.
"The new piece of legislation... is not the initiative of the Bush Government and efforts are under way to make sure that Pakistan-specific provisions in the 9/11 legislation are not made part of the law," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asian Affairs John A Gastright told newspersons on Friday
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